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Sunday, November 24, 1912: Didn’t even get to Sunday School this morning because it was raining, then it changed to snow. And today became the first day of the snow fall.

Source: Farm Journal (October, 1912)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

What did Grandma do on rainy Sunday mornings like this one? Did she ever doodle or draw pictures to while away the time?

Maybe Grandma saw these directions for making fifteen line pictures in the October, 1912 issue of Farm Journal:

Draw a picture with fifteen straight lines. Just fifteen, and no more. Take any subject, landscape, animal, bird, fruit, flower, a household article, or even a human being. The object is to produce a striking picture in fifteen lines. This is lots of fun and in a short time you will be surprised what you can do.

I’ve become hooked on 15 line drawings. Ever since I read this suggestion, my doodling has become more purposeful, and I enjoy the mental challenge of trying to make really cool 15-line drawings.

There was a follow-up article about how to do 15 line drawings as a child’ party activity in the November 1912 issue of Farm Journal.

Here’s how to have a picture party: Give each boy and girl a pencil and three sheets of paper. Tell them to draw something in fifteen straight lines; a different picture on each sheet of paper. Let them work for fifteen minutes, then collect the papers and fasten them on the wall. and have the entire party vote for the best drawing. The one whose drawing received the most votes is the prizewinning one.

Hello

I look forward to sharing my grandmother's diary with relatives and friends. Helena Muffly (Swartz) kept a diary from 1911-1914. She was 15 years old when she began this diary. I plan to post these entries one day at a time—exactly 100 years after she wrote them. I hope you enjoy this glimpse back to a slower paced time.

The header is a picture of the farm where my grandmother lived when she wrote this diary. It is located in Northumberland County in central Pennsyvlania about a mile outside of McEwenvsille. My father said that the buildings look similar to what they looked like when he was a child.